The Adventure of Faith

Before He ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father, Jesus gave a charge to His followers to go and make disciples of all nations and peoples. He was initially speaking to a band of Hebrew followers who would eventually travel to the furthest reaches of the world, cross geographic, ethnic, linguistic and cultural barriers in order to disciple others to know, love, and follow Jesus. That same charge and challenges hold for us today as we seek to disciple people to know, love, and obey Jesus as they are transformed into His image and do the things that Jesus did.

In Disciple-Making Movements (DMM) one of the first steps, after establishing an ongoing prayer lifestyle, is to gain access into a group or community in which you are a perceived outsider. Going from an outsider to become either an insider or accepted outsider is a big transition. In this first blog on the topic I want to address the attitude of the Jesus’ followers in gaining access. I want to share five key attitudes and perspectives that are important.

#1. We Come to Bless and Serve Others.

When Jesus sent out the 72 he told them when they entered a house, to “first say, ‘Peace to this house’” (Luke 10:5). Our attitude is not to be takers but givers (Matt 10:8). Like Jesus, we are to be “among them as one who serves” (Luke 22:27).

Believe it or not, that takes all the pressure off! We don’t come to a group of people as someone who comes to take or use them. There is no shame in our mission. We come for their benefit. We want to bless them. Our desire is to leave their lives richer, fuller, more blessed because of our relationship with them. If a group rejects us, then we graciously walk way and bless them anyway.

#2. We Come with Jesus’ Perspective Concerning the Group We Seek Access

We want to see people the way Jesus sees them. That means we approach all people and see them with great dignity and worth. We don’t rely on what we perceive in the natural. We need to see people with Jesus’ eyes realizing that He willingly died for each and every one.

That means people we encounter might be very course, rude, hostile, immoral, outrageous, and opposed to all of our values. How does Jesus see them? Like the city of Jerusalem, He longs for them like a mother hen, to bring them under His wings. He knows that regardless of what appears on the outside, they have been made for glory. Each person has a destiny for which s/he have been designed and the Lord desires that they be freed up to walk in that destiny.

If we find people repugnant, our judgment will be discernible by them. It will be easy for them to sense our critical spirit and feel like we are bringing “religion” instead of a relationship with Jesus. If we struggle in this area, an extra measure of prayer before the Lord is warranted until we find God’s love bursting forth from our hearts to any people group.

#3. We Come to Listen, Pray, Observe, and Discern their Key Needs

One of the greatest gifts we can offer people is to listen and watch. Too often we jump in with our opinions without opening our hearts to receive and perceive others. The gift of listening is one of the greatest gifts we offer people.

As we listen, perceive, and pray, the Lord begins to reveal keys into the issues in people’s lives. Insights are given as to core needs that people have. If we are truly coming to serve and bless, we need to understand what those needs might be. Those needs are most often the keys that open doors and bring access into a community.

#4 We Come to Demonstrate the Love of God in a Practical Fashion

Blessing and serving most often takes the shape of practical action. It can include feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting prisoners, healing the sick, setting people free from the demonic, restoring broken relationships, and correcting injustices. In other communities or groups it can address peoples’ needs for value, purpose, or community. In still other communities it might take the form of providing education and training. Ways to practically demonstrate God’s love are limitless. As we pray and are open to the Holy Spirit, let Him speak and reveal what area of service we might provide.

#5 We Come as Sent Ones Doing the Father’s Work

Followers of Jesus are an apostolic community. As such we have been commissioned and sent by the Father with a task to complete and a message to give. As we seek access into a community that means:

We go with the Jesus’ authority. He is King of Kings and Lord and Lords. He is over all the nations of the world. We don’t need anyone else permission to seek entrance into a community that does not yet know Jesus. He has told us to Go and we Go with his authority.

We go in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are post Pentecost. The Spirit has come and he is actively involved in the Church to make disciples of all nations. We cannot do this in our own strength but we can depend on the power of the Holy Spirit.

We have both a Task and a Message. Our task is to bring the Kingdom and Rule of God everywhere. That means we heal the sick, cast out demons, bring blessing to the marketplace and the nations of the world. We right injustices and manifest His righteousness. We also bring his message of forgiveness and reconciliation to all mankind. People need to know that God was in Jesus reconciling the world to Himself.

Our approach in gaining access to a group of community makes all the difference. In essence we seek to take the same attitude and approach Jesus took when the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). We come humbly, we come lovingly, we come with compassion, we come to serve.

About

My name is David Gschwend and I have been journeying with Jesus since 1971. He had been pursuing me a lot longer than that, but it was my senior year in high school that I finally decided to start following him. After graduating from college I taught high school biology and chemistry for four years. After that, I worked in the electrical industry in testing and troubleshooting high, medium and low voltage power equipment. Finally in 1989 my journey took me into the pastoral ministry. After 16 years serving in traditional churches Jesus led me in June 2006 to begin a movement of networks of reproducing house churches from San Jose to Monterey, CA (www.gatheringbythebay.org). This has been the craziest part of the journey so far!